Shervin

Health and family are all that really matter. No amount of wealth, power, fame, nothing else trumps...

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:17:54 -0400

Health and family are all that really matter. No amount of wealth, power, fame, nothing else trumps the importance of health and family. Focus on these two things above all else.

True beauty is born by conquering pain and enduring struggle....

Mon, 21 May 2012 05:58:09 -0400

True beauty is born by conquering pain and enduring struggle. Beauty without effort and struggle never endures the depths you travel in the ups and downs of life. The most beautiful smiles are lined with the reflected lines of past sorrows where canals of tears once flowed. As my Persian mother always said: there is no beauty without pain- the most beautiful flowers are the ones that struggled and cracked rock to bloom in the sunshine.

Congrats to all my friends involved with Facebook. Deep thanks for accelerating the rate of change ...

Fri, 18 May 2012 05:00:48 -0400

Congrats to all my friends involved with Facebook. Deep thanks for accelerating the rate of change in our world. This is a historic day for the tech world. Entrepreneurship is a force for good.

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Wed, 16 May 2012 18:17:26 -0400

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Mon, 14 May 2012 05:00:06 -0400

In my strategic overview of the landscape ahead I see tremendous and fierce competitive forces for...

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:56:20 -0400

In my strategic overview of the landscape ahead I see tremendous and fierce competitive forces for the four giants: Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft. I have reached the conclusion that I must treat Facebook-Microsoft as one quasi-company. I call it FBSoft. This is not dissimilar to the US-UK in WWII (yes MS is UK in this example- this analogy does not carry with it moral parallels at all). They effectively will act as proxies for each other. One will not make a move without strategic synchrony. Skype was one of these proxy moves. This the forces Apple to have to choose a an ally. It seems to me that an Apple-Twitter alliance (of the FBSoft kind is the most natural and powerful fit. This would leave Google having to make a very large and large and move. This will drive massive consolidation spiking in 2012-2014. Instagram was just one of he early signals of what’s ahead. As the dust settles the tectonic plates will realign and the tech world will look different. I expect a lot of value creation will happen during this creatively disruptive period. I call it the Social Wars. Grab your virtual guns and get in the arena. This will be an epic and historic battle for the future of technology leadership and innovation.

Success Amnesia...

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:16:54 -0400

Practice success and failure amnesia. Forget that you succeeded. Forgive and forget that you failed. Learn from both and move on fast. Failure can be a patient teacher- it’s often a learnable event. Success can lead to signal and pattern blindness. The greatest achievers I have met are grounded and focused. They practice success amnesia. Achievement is a state of mind. It needs to be practiced, protected and sharpened. Don’t let success blind that state of mind or failure bog it down. The faster we forget the twins of success and failure and focus on only creating value the faster the engines of achievement can carry you forward.

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Sun, 13 May 2012 00:16:36 -0400

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Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:03:56 -0400

My father is a Persian enigma. His coils of thick silky curly...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:59:00 -0400

My father is a Persian enigma.

His coils of thick silky curly white hair hang

heavy on his wrinkled brow.

Women come up to him

And ask if they can touch his hair.

With my thinner hair, I always joke with him.

“Dad couldn’t you have at least given me your hair”

He is one of the most charming men I’ve ever met.

I’ve seen his silhouette of features

Etched in stone in the walls of Persepolis;

As if he stepped out of that stone 75 years ago.

His thick black eyebrows cast shadows

over his giant brown Persian eyes

Eyes that express every emotion

In fleeting twitches of communication

That only an orphan like him express.

There is an ancient Persian aura about him.

As if he just sat with an Achaemenid King

And advised him on rebuilding the temples of the Jews.

Infinite wisdom comes from his lips

as if he is some kind of Persian Oracle.

I remember him surrounded by books

From the time I was two years old.

Books were jewels to him.

He would go searching for ancient books

In markets and bazaars.

When he would find that one book

He’d been looking for months

He would be filled with unbounded happiness.

I have never seen him happier

Then when he discovered a new book.

It’s like he had found the Holy Grail.

I remembered a story he told me.

He was born along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

He was six years old and his mother had died.

Some years later his father died too. Both of tuberculosis.

Alone he found solace in books.

He made a deal with the tiny bookstore owner

Who took a liking to him.

He could have any book he wanted

In exchange he would clean the bookstore.

He’d read his books by oil lamps until dawn.

He would dream of escaping his tiny town

And explore the wide world he read about.

When I took him to China in 2010 for the first time

He explored Beijing with such fervent passion and curiosity.

He was obsessed with finding this foldable bicycle

He had read about it and he knew could find it cheaper here.

He also was determined with making custom suits in China.

For days he was off exploring while I worked.

Finally, he said he was ready and took me with him.

As he came to this one street where all the tailors were

Everyone on the street knew him. They called him by his name.

“Ebi!” they shouted out. I looked around shocked.

My father had befriended every single merchant.

He couldn’t’ speak Chinese. They couldn’t speak English.

They literally loved him.

His ancient Persian charm had won over China.

I walked in and they had all his designs that he drew.

He is a designer and artist at heart.

When I was a child I used to love getting his notes

Where he would draw the S in my name as an elaborate Swan.

Fabric after fabric came out. He had marked them days before with needles.

They took my measurements and to my shock they made my suits

The very same day and they delivered it to our hotel the same day.

They all hugged my father.

Next he took me the area where they had bicycles.

He actually had found the tiny miniature foldable bicycles.

“See, Shervin, it’s only $250! These are $500 or more in the West!”

His joy in his eyes was so pure.

Walking with him I saw in him

What must have driven the growth of the ancient Persian Empire.

Intense curiosity

Insatiable hunger for knowledge

Immense courage and resilience

And a unique and very human charm

That could speak a universal language

That a Chinese merchant could understand and love.

He represents the very best idea of a Persian

And the Persian ethos

A Persian Version that inspired so much

From the first declaration of human rights by Cyrus the Great

Monotheistic Religion with Zoroaster, Algebra by Omar Khayyam,

Avicenna’s advance of Medicine, the first postal service and so much more.

That spirit is still very much alive

It has just lost a systemic way to express itself

An environment that optimizes for achievement

The Persian spirit flourishes in places

Like my great nation of America

Where meritocracy and freedom

Reward curiosity and talent and ambition.

In my father I have tapped into a time portal.

I get to travel across millennia

And sit with my ancient ancestors

And I learn and listen and learn.

As I type this I google Iran

And almost all of the Autosuggestions are Iran Nuclear, War.

Inside my heart breaks.

And I understand the pain in my father’s heart

That still beats on strong with echoes of the past.

In those echoes I have hope

Hope that the that Persian Version of excellence

Will never die.

It beats in my heart.

And I know it beats in the hearts of the

Seventy million plus Persian hearts in Iran

That seek the greatness that is innate within them.

And when they are free to be as great as they know they are

They will be a gift to humanity.

Their brilliance will shine so bright.

And they will charm the world

Like my father charmed an entire street in China.

-Shervin Pishevar

30,000 feet in the sky

April 17, 2012

Picture by Shervin Pishevar. My father Ebi and my son Cyrus, Dulles Airport.

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Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:07:31 -0400

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Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:54:49 -0400

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Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:49:49 -0400

The Love Principle in Investing

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:59:00 -0400

The Love Principle in Investing:

With Maria Bartiromo I talk about what I call the ‘Love Principle’ in investing (To see the video click on the title above). I want to expand on what I said. I’ve learned to invest only in the companies where I completely fall in love with the team, product, execution and vision. Life is short so one should want to invest your time, energy and resources into something that you can be tireless about- where your love becomes a source of endless energy. Think Warren Buffet still drinking Cherry Cokes every single day or going to the local DQ frequently. You can’t go wrong with love.

This has helped me filter and simplify what I decide to invest in. If you don’t feel the love then don’t invest in something because you want to check off an empty box in a space- you are not investing in empty boxes- you are investing in people and the resilience of the human heart to beat on against the greatest odds. Companies and teams like Uber, Fab, Warby Parker, Tumblr, Machine Zone are filled with love and caring for their teams, their vision and their products- where they exude the passion of their teams and their focused execution inspires excellence all around. Their hearts pound so hard the world feels the beats and begins to sway to them. Love what you do and it never feels like work- it feels like being alive.

Peering Around Corners

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:22:00 -0400

Pondering ambition and motivation. I had a conversation with someone that made me realize the importance of allowing young people to taste what life can be like if one works hard. A diversity of experiences at a young age can transform a young mind to expand the horizons what they imagined was possible for them.

At every juncture I was blessed to peer around the corners of life and see there are layers within layers, borders beyond borders, boundaries beyond boundaries. That in the grand scheme of things boundaries and borders, walls and obstacles, were fungible, scalable, that the seemingly immovable was movable by something as simple as a change of perspective. Sometimes we stare so hard into the wall in front of us, we miss the doorway or window laying just to the edges of our peripheral views.

The prisons of our mind are constructs of our minds and hence we are the architects of our own existence and of the spaces we inhabit. Our minds when married with our spirits and character can make the hardest steel malleable again through a form of persistent love- when our dreams inhabit every atom of our being. We are literally what we see. This makes it imperative to share our existence with others, especially those whose existence might not intersect with ours. In that intermingling of existence the very boundaries that define us become blurred and our world expands before our very eyes.

What it means to me to be an American.

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:55:00 -0500

I was recently informed that the US Government had chosen me as an Outstanding American by Choice. This recognition was established by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2006 to recognize the significant contributions and achievements of naturalized U.S. Citizens. I didn’t know what to think and then it got real when Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Alejandro Mayorkas, called me. He told me to call him Ali, when we first began talking. He helped me calm down a bit and prepare for the ceremony. I’ll be joining 80 other Americans recognized since 2006 by this award including naturalized American Citizens like Nobel Laureate Eli Wiesel, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and actor Andy Garcia. First thing I did was call my parents and shared the news. Through their tears I could hear their pride and their immense gratitude to this incredible nation. America has given my family so much and we owe our very lives and every ounce of our energy to give back to it.

As a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, I am blessed to see a constant flow of incredible talent from all points of this planet who dream of coming to America and building their companies here. Silicon Valley in particular is a beautiful patchwork quilt of cultures and people from everywhere pursuing their version of the American Dream. It behooves us to open up to more talent and to retain those who come here for our incredible University systems. Let’s staple visas to those graduate degrees and welcome their brilliance to the continuing American story. We are a nation of immigrants. It just turns out each of our families have different naturalization dates. It’s why I co-founded Startup Visa and have proposed a “MacArthur Genius Prize” for US Citizenship where we go from passive immigration to active recruitment of the most brilliant minds of the world to join us as Americans.

Silicon Valley is the closest we have to a highly efficient meritocracy (granted, it’s not perfect) it’s a place that at it’s best is based on people advancing forward based on the quality of their talent, execution and character. The circumstances of ones birth has very little to do with whether one can succeed or fail in Silicon Valley. You could literally come here with nothing but your talent and make your dreams come true. If you want our respect, gear up and enter the arena of entrepreneurship and be willing to die and battle for your idea to win the hearts and minds of those in the stands. The users who vote with their time, money and passion count here- nothing else. No pedigree or birth right can give one the legitimacy and honor that hundreds of millions of users can. Merit matters more. Always. Those values represent the best of American values around achievement.

The common bond that unites us as Americans is that we are eternal optimists. We always believe in second chances. We welcome failure as a journey to success. We don’t believe that the circumstances of our birth pre-determine the outcomes of our life’s stories. We write our chapters in our American story. And that collective story is a movement of freedom that will continue to inspire us and to inspire the world. Sometimes I believe that we as Americans have become too hard on ourselves. We have allowed too much negativity to creep into our own view of ourselves. America is great. Americans are great. We have too much going for us and together we can continue to reinvent ourselves and bring opportunity to all Americans. We need a movement of American Optimism- a movement of positivity that celebrates our strengths, recognize our weaknesses and unites beyond ephemeral labels that pale to the most important label of all- American. Together we can innovate, invent, solve and continue to scale the American promise to include all Americans.

I will take this occasion to thank Director Alejandro Mayorkas and President Barack Obama for this recognition. I do not think I deserve it and promise to devote ever more of my energy to giving back and earning the faith that you have shown in me.

With that I want to thank my fellow Americans who have helped create and sustain an ever more tolerant nation that welcomes talent from all walks of life. America is not just a physical place. It’s an idea. It’s a vision. It’s an American soul. It’s an American dream. And it’s worth the fighting for. It’s worth the hard work to keep that dream alive and a reality for all Americans.

I am now heading to the ceremony at NASA Research Park in Moffett Field. I will post a link to my speech later when it is ready.

We might see the first trillion dollar company by valuation in our lifetimes. With over $100B in cash and over $46B in Q4 2011 revenue ($13B in profit) Apple seems to have as good a shot as any at breaking that barrier in the coming decades. The bar is set high not just for hitting those numbers but, more importantly, having even more massively positive impact on our world.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:36:29 -0500

We might see the first trillion dollar company by valuation in our lifetimes. With over $100B in cash and over $46B in Q4 2011 revenue ($13B in profit) Apple seems to have as good a shot as any at breaking that barrier in the coming decades. The bar is set high not just for hitting those numbers but, more importantly, having even more massively positive impact on our world.

The Ride of A Lifetime.

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:09:00 -0500

“We ain’t even spose to be here…If you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting f’d up too…That s**t cray.” - Jay-Z

“It’s not, like, ‘We’re here! We’re balling harder than everybody.’ “It’s like, ‘I’m shocked that we’re here.’ Still being amazed, still not being jaded. Having so much fun and then stopping and saying, ‘What are we doing here? How did we get here?’“ –Jay-Z

I’m thrilled to announce today that Menlo Ventures is leading a $32m Series B investment in Uber (authorized to extend to $39m), an on-demand car services company that is truly revolutionizing personal transportation. Travis Kalanick is on stage at LeWeb in Paris at this moment announcing the funding and the launch of UberEurope. We’re proud to be joined with other investors like Goldman Sachs, Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos) and previous investors like Benchmark Capital and Lowercase Capital. Founded in 2009, Uber has already radically changed how people in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Boston get around town – and now the company is going global, bringing its service to Paris.

Uber is my largest investment since joining Menlo in June and I am honored to join the company’s board as a board observer. On a personal level, as an immigrant son of a Washington D.C. cab driver who came to this country with nothing and allowed his kids to pursue the American dream, this investment has special meaning for me. I visited my father in Washington last night and reminisced about the past and how Uber is about to launch in Washington this month. He’s going to attend the launch party next week in Washington with me.

How many chances do we get to help build a global brand that brings delight, happiness and magic to people’s lives around the world? This investment is a rare opportunity to help build a global brand that will will soon be as ubiquitous as FedEx in the major cities of the world.

And it’s even more rare – and exhilarating – to work with a co-founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick, and a team that are passionate and obsessed with eliminating a frustration point so many people thought they had no control over. If you know Travis, you know he is one of the most gnarly, passionate and obsessed entrepreneurs you will ever meet. He’s an inspiration to us all. His vision is going to transform our world.

If you live in or near a major metropolitan area, you know how maddening it can sometimes be to get personal transportation options, especially in bad weather or when you’re running late. Uber eliminates that pain, letting you pull out your iPhone and have a private sedan routed to you in just minutes with the push of a button. It’s a service that brings pleasure, magic and efficiency to the world, giving you your time back and letting you spend it with people you love, rather than dealing with petty inconveniences. Uber is about freedom and convenience.

Beyond helping people have a richer social life, Uber’s also a model of collaborative commerce and efficiently tackling excess capacity. Drivers who previously were underutilized, sitting around waiting for utilization and demand while burning gas, can now be more efficient – and earn substantially more than they used to.

It’s about about leveraging mobile technology to enable an elegant solution to a complex problem set leading to a magical consumer experience. If you want more details, here’s a link to the latest news on Uber’s site (www.uber.com) and join us for the ride and journey ahead! Onwards.

Thanks and Giving with Tahrir on my Mind

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:02:00 -0500

I was in Tahrir Square in this October and participated in the protest against the SCAF or the Military Council. I met with some of the bravest youth leaders in my time there. It was clear that Egypt was like 2 nations: a nation of the youth who fought for their freedom and made history and the “nation” of the old who were trying to steal the revolution that the youth spilled their blood for. In debates between the generations I noticed a certain tone from the cronies of the SCAF. They wanted to pat the young people on the head, say thank you and then send them on their way. But the youth were angry and they knew what was happening.

I remember one conversation with a hero of mine: Jawad Nablusi. We spent much time together. He lost his eye in Tahrir Square earlier in the year. Every where we went together he was a hero to everyone. He is only 28. He has 4 businesses and is a very successful entrepreneur. He has moved to the Cairo’s largest slum built on top of trash that the city dumps on them. In his modest little apartment, it dawned on me that Jawad and other youth like him are the true leaders of Egypt and it’s future. The government had offered him the Youth Ministry and he declined. I asked him why and he said: “Because I know I can do more from the outside.” What was unspoken was that he would never want to associate himself with those leaders.

In our final evening brainstorming we came up with an epic idea. Let’s form a unified Youth Party in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and then other places to bring the youth leaders who fought for their freedom together. Later in Libya, I proposed this idea to the Chairman and then Prime Minister of Libya and he loved the idea and invited us to bring all of the young leaders to Tripoli to kick off the idea. We are now planning this. In that brainstorm I told Jawad what I had realized: “YOU and your brothers and sisters are the true leaders of Egypt. Don’t let them steal your revolution. Don’t let anyone tell you because of your age that you cannot step up and lead. Fight back. Don’t let them them usurp you.”

Now, the youth have spilled their blood again to fight back. It’s imperative that we support them. I communicated with Jawad and asked him to update me and if there is anything that the rest of us can do. He wrote back:

“Hey Shervin„„its a mess here….been sleepin in Tahrir for 3 days„„doing barracades and stepping in front lines to keep it peacful…its very hard….more and more people die every day….we r tryin to form a government but it is not easy…..

Miss u bro,
Jawad

And in a second message just now on Thanksgiving morning:

Jawad Nabulsi

We now achived the first ceasefire……we are putting the barracades and hopefully fighting doesn’t errupt again…..what is really needed and should b pressured on SCAF is that the new government has real authority and does not have to return to the SCAF for every decision as they are very slow and now decisions have to be taken quickly….the responsibility is big and we need a lot of support……thankx bro

On this Thanksgiving, we must give thanks for so much. I give special thanks for the brave youth like Jawad who represent our very best ideas for freedom and democracy for all. I pray for their safety and feeled blessed that their courage is reshaping our world before our very eyes- eyes that should not only witness history but participate in its making. We can’t fail them, because if we do, we fail ourselves.

Iconic Reading the Steve Jobs book I was struck by Steve...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:33:00 -0400

Iconic

Reading the Steve Jobs book I was struck by Steve Jobs’ consistent use of iconic imagery and music. Even to the point of minimizing the actual product. His marketing approach was to infuse the very emotional essence and spirit of the product rather than than it’s features. He sold aspirational human emotions as unlocked by the experience of beautifully designed products. As Jony Ive said the product should defer to us. From the very first starkly iconic Macintosh commercial to the fun and joyful introduction of the original iPod, the unifying principal was that icons, symbols speak to the human heart more than any whiz bang technology features. We must remember always that all our innovations should be in service and deeply rooted in the best aspects of our collective human spirit.

Here is one of the iconic “Hey Mama” iPod commercial that Apple used to introduce the iPod. It also was the first time for many that they were introduced to the now iconic Black Eyed Peas. Watching it I imagined Steve Jobs watching it back when it was originally produced and nodding with a knowingly wise smile across his face. I imagine him envisioning millions of people looking up to watch it for the first time on television and beginning to involuntarily twitch and move their heads, feet and bodies to the rhythm. In those silhouettes we could project our very selves, wearing this new jewelry of the purest white, feeding our souls with a vibrant beat that made us feel so alive with joy and happiness. We couldn’t even see the iPod yet and yet we knew right there and then that it would be ours. And our lives have been lyrical and full of rhythm since. As we dance to our music now, let’s all give a knowing nod and wink to that man who gave us so much of his soul and stirred us to move again.